


Lessons in Drink

by conceptstage



Series: Single Chapter Critical Role [47]
Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-23
Updated: 2019-04-23
Packaged: 2020-01-24 12:58:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,280
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18571963
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/conceptstage/pseuds/conceptstage
Summary: Beau, a fresh recruit at Cobalt, has a night out on town.Beauweek 2019 prompt fill for day two: brawl/learning





	Lessons in Drink

Beau paused outside the bar to look over her shoulder one last time. She scanned the crowd of tired workers shuffling home for a familiar shade of cobalt blue but saw nothing. She still didn’t move at first, trying to catch anyone who might have ducked into an alley when they saw her stop, but after several seconds, no one appeared.

Feeling secure, she took a deep breath in through her nose and let it out shakily before pushing open the tavern door and stepping inside. Every step she took sent pain shooting through the open wounds on her back. There was some up beat lyre and flute music from the duo of bards in the corner and loud conversations about conquests and glory. A blonde woman and a bald man were arm wrestling at the table by the door and when she stopped to watch someone came inside behind her and shoved her shoulder.

“Move your ass, little girl.”

Beau glared at him but he walked off to the bar before she could say anything back. She bit the snark back on her tongue and shook her head. There was a cheer beside her as the blonde woman won and she just felt more pissed for having missed it.

Frowning and angrily shoving her fists into her pockets, she marched to the bar. “An ale please,” she said, taking a seat in front of the bartender as she washed glasses.

The older woman frowned and looked her over. “How old are you, kiddo?”

Beau sneered. “Old enough. I’ve got coin, are you gonna serve me or not?”

“Coin first. Three copper for a mug.”

Beau rolled her eyes and pulled all the copper she had to her name, five pieces, and laid them on the counter. “I’ll pay ahead for two if you’ll take five.”

The woman raised an eyebrow and slid three coppers towards herself, leaving the other two. “Three per drink, darlin. One ale, coming right up.” She took the freshly cleaned mug and sat it down in front of Beau, pouring it full while Beau picked up the leftover two coins begrudgingly. 

When the mug was full Beau sighed and swirled it around. Her first taste of booze and she could already tell it was going to be shitty. Might as well get used to it, shitty disappointments seemed to be the theme for her life. She brought it up to her mouth and just before the first taste of the drink hit her lip, something hit her hard in the back and the mug tipped over the other way, spilling out over the counter.

“Motherfucker!” she exclaimed, spinning around with a heated glare to find the man who had shoved her in the doorway frowning down at her.

“Don’t fucking yell at me, bitch, I tripped.”

“Buy me another one. Now.”

He snorted and rolled his eyes. “Yeah, sure. I’ll get right on that.” Then he turned and started to walk away. Beau reached out and grabbed his arm, using her training to twist it painfully by the elbow. “What the hell, you bitch!” he tried to shake her off but Beau held him fast.

“Buy me another drink. Now.”

“I’ll kill you, you bitch!” He spun his body around, swiping clumsily at her and she just dropped his arm and stepped out of the way.

“You call me ‘bitch’ a lot, is that the extent of your vocabulary? That’s almost sad. Pay up. I won’t ask again.”

He kicked at her knee and she knocked his leg away. Someone else grabbed her from behind to hold her still, allowing the first man to clock her across the face. It stung and she tasted iron in her mouth but this was nothing compared to the sting from the cloth of her robe being pressed against the wounds on her back. She reached back to grab the wrists of the person holding her still and tilted her head to the side to avoid the next punch. The fist flew passed her head and cracked against the second man’s nose. Beau heard the snap of his cartilage right in her ear and winced slightly in sympathy.

The man behind her roared and let her go and she shoved him into the wall. He crashed against it and slid to the floor. The first man came at her again and she stepped out of the way, holding out her foot and trip him so that he crashed face first into his friend.

Beau flipped a loose strand of hair over her shoulder and smirked. She pressed her foot against his back to keep him down and started rooting around in his pockets, pulling out a handful of copper. “I’ll be taking a little extra on account of the bruise you gave me.” Pain flared in her cheek with each heartbeat. “Thank you very much, you’ve been nothing but helpful. Blah, blah, blah, have a good day.”

She turned back to the bar and pulled herself up onto a stool. The two men groaned behind her as they slowly pushed themselves up to their feet. She slid three of the man’s coppers across to the bartender who was looking at her with what appeared to be amusement. “One ale?” she asked and Beau nodded. “Coming right up.” She watched the two men leave as the newly filled mug was sat in front of her, and as they stumbled out the door of the tavern, someone else stepped inside, looking hilariously out of his element and pulled his robes tighter around him, his lip curling in disgust as he looked at the drunk patrons around him.

Beau rolled her eyes and turned to her mug, taking a big drink and smothering down the instinct to balk at the taste. “Zenoth,” she said. “Pull up a seat.”

The man came up beside her and sneered at the sticky, ale covered stool beside her. “I think not.” The bartender gave him a scathing look and he cleared his throat. “Beauregard, come back with me now. This is quite enough, you’ve made your displeasure known.”

“Oh this? This isn’t about you. I don’t care enough about you to act out or cause you trouble.”

He made a noise of disgust when someone several feet away threw their heads out of the window to throw up in the street. “If you leave with me now, I will rescind your punishment.”

“Oh, will you? Can you rescind the wounds on my back? Does rescinding them make them close up with no scars?”

He let out a heavy breath through his nose. “I will cancel your further punishment, there is nothing I can do about the wounds now. Only time and healing salves will help with those.”

Beau chuckled humorlessly before tipping back her mug to finish off the disgusting drink. It would be the first of many. This bar fight was the first of many. The new scars on her back would be the first of many. And this person who thought he could push her around and manipulate her would be the first of many too. “You know,” she said, wincing at the taste. “I should thank you, Zenoth. You’ve taught me a valuable lesson today.” She pocketed the rest of the copper and hopped off the stool. “Today, I learned that the only person I can trust in this world is myself. So, you can punish me all you want, but I’m not going to break and be the monk you seem to think you can force me to be. Let’s go.” She started towards the door and Zenoth scrambled to follow her.


End file.
